Parents Blog

While parked at Robbie's soccer practice last week, I overheard a group of girls discussing various radio stations while they pulled on their socks and cleats. "I swear you have to listen to 95.4. It is the coolest." "What kind of music?" "Well it's mostly classic rock with some modern music too." "What kind of classic?" "You know, like Justin Timberlake."

I felt so old. If Justin Timberlake is classic rock, what would you call Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young? The Rolling Stones would have to be Baroque. I wonder what Justin would think about being labeled as classic rock? I feel like I should enroll him in meals on wheels and get him a life alert pendant just in case he falls. Justin is younger than my oldest daughters. I can feel my bones disintegrating like the dust in a sarcophagus discovered by Indiana Jones.

And speaking of Indiana Jones, he's back – nearly 70 years old and still flying on ropes to land on trucks and rushing through tombs to avoid booby traps. The franchise is a classic, but even Colonel Sanders didn't pretend to be (I'll be gracious here) forty-five. The movie will make millions – that's a given – but hopefully it won't encourage a generation of centenarians to believe they can save the world with a whip and a wry smile. I'd hate to see 70 year old men playing out scenes from the film without benefit of wires, foam pads, make-up, and good lighting. Like all the teens who tried the stunts from "Jackass the Movie," I trust we won't have emergency rooms filling up with AARP Indy wannabes.

Nevertheless we are playing longer and harder than ever. It's not unusual to have 60 even 90 year olds running marathons, participating in iron man competitions, and pursuing an active lifestyle long after reaching the "classic" stage. I have to attribute a portion of that longevity of performance to the strong emphasis on sports over the past thirty years, especially for women who got access to more and more college level sports with the passage of Title IX in 1972 and then Jimmy Carter's push for adherence to the law in 1979.

When I was in high school girls were restricted to tennis (which most played through a tennis club), gymnastics and volleyball. Gym or P.E. was limited to rhythmic gymnastics, calisthenics and laps around the gym. We were excused once a month from activity with a discrete note from our mothers. A few schools had track and field programs for girls, but the major sports role for a girl in high school was cheerleading or being on the dance team. I grew up in Seattle, so I had the benefit of ski slopes just 45 minutes from home. I latched on to skiing with a vengeance. It was my only athletic release. Twenty years after my graduation from high school, my own daughters were participating in high school sports with nearly unlimited possibilities. My sister-in-law went to Harvard on a rowing scholarship in the 1980s. While living in Minneapolis, my younger daughter bought season tickets for the WNBA Lynx in their rookie year 1999, exactly thirty years after I graduated from high school. The athletes who paved the way are probably all "classics" now at least by character if not by age. Many of them didn't get the college scholarships or professional contracts female athletes can achieve now, but it didn't stop them from their passion.

So those girls giggling on the grass and nonchalantly readying themselves for soccer practice come from a brief, but momentous history of sports growth both for women and men in America. It's significant to remember that despite limited opportunities, great female athletes managed to break onto the scene – Babe Didrikson, Althea Gibson and Gertrude Ederle. But until the 70s, they had to limit their college sports to intramurals and outside clubs. In soccer, in particular, opportunities abound for both female and male players who can choose recreational, high school, club, semi-pro, college and professional soccer teams. The demise of the women's professional soccer league left a void for women, but I have no doubt it will be filled again as the sport expands and those girls discussing music last week seek more chances to perform. Soccer helps players begin a journey down the road of improved health, extended activity and good habits. Sometimes you need some classics to appreciate the modern.